Imelda Marcos Bids For Her Shoes

March 16, 1992|By Helen Sierra.

``I want back my shoes.`` Those forthright words are from Imelda Marcos, who wants her 3,000 pairs of shoes back. Doubtless she feels she needs them while trudging the campaign trail in her effort to succeed President Corazon Aquino in the May 11 election. ``My personal belongings remain in the palace. And just imagine, I can`t have them. She (Aquino) even has my shoes, my 3,000 pairs of shoes.`` Those shoes are a symbol of the excesses during the reign of Marcos` late husband, Ferdinand. ``I want to make an auction and donate the money to the poor. But she (Aquino) doesn`t let me have my shoes. Do you think she`s using them? Perhaps she wears the same size I do. I thought she was a size 6 1/2.`` The Aquino government has charged that the Marcoses looted the Philippines of nearly $5 billion during their years in power; Imelda Marcos is fighting 50 charges in the Philippines. But Marcos is running hard, her presidential campaign is being taken seriously, and enthusiastic crowds show up at her appearances.

BIRTH CONTROL FOR HAWAIIAN PIGEONS Hawaiian health officials are alarmed at what they perceive as a

``staggering statistic`` about the pigeons hanging around Waikiki Beach. A beak count showed 31,000 pigeons called the Waikiki area home. Each pair of pigeons can produce 20 new pigeons a year, or about 4.5 trillion pigeons by the year 2000, assuming that none of the local cats manages to snare some for lunch. So the state`s Ad Hoc Pestiferous Bird Committee wants to reduce the pigeons` procreative possibilities, and plans to spend $1.2 million on feeding them corn that comes with a sterilizing agent for three years. Poisoning the birds would be cheaper, but: ``You have dying pigeons flopping and flapping around,`` says Steven Arashiro, a city parks official who is chairman of the bird committee. Though the poison allegedly doesn`t hurt the creatures, the sight of dying pigeons who ``look like they are in pain`` might hurt Waikiki`s charm for tourists.

PRINCE PHILIP SAYS NO TO YO! Great Britain`s Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, royally ignored a radio reporter last week in San Francisco who sought a sidewalk interview by calling out ``Yo prince! Yo prince!``

MOVIE CHEMISTRY ISN`T INSTINCTIVE Those gorgeous tans and the sheen of passion that show up on Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone in ``Basic Instinct`` are a tribute to chemistry. The tans and the sheen are all out of cans. The dew on Douglas` back that hints at an erotic shimmer is a ``reflectant`` used by makeup expert David Craig Forrest. The tan? ``Head-to-toe`` makeup. Forrest says the makeup not only makes the stars gorgeous, it also gives naked actors a psychological shield.

``It`s sort of a second skin so people aren`t seeing the `raw` you,`` he says. And putting the makeup on gives actors ``a chance to adjust to someone seeing them naked, and having someone`s hands on them.``

IT`S NOT JUST ROCK `N` ROLL Doing our part to keep you totally in tune with the candidates, here are the musical preferences of the major presidential candidates, excluding George Bush, who has declined to participate: Jerry Brown, Gregorian chant; Bill Clinton, jazz; Paul Tsongas, Paul Simon, plus musicals; Patrick Buchanan, country and western, 1950s R&B; and David Duke, classical, rock and country.